RayW Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/WCW_Logo.png What you think happened.. As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, was still in charge of Time Warner prior to the final merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 (shortly following the AOL/Time Warner merger), and it appeared that WCW would continue. One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, the World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW wrestling to be out of line with their image. As a result, WCW programming was canceled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts. What actually happened... As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 , and it appeared that WCW would continue. One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, the World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. An offer of $2,500,000 with an additional $1,700,000 for the video library was made by Vince McMahon's WWF in February 2001. Bischoff and Fusient could only offer a total of $3,000,000, and it looked dead set that the WWF would finally kill off it's competition. In late February 2001, another offer was made, this time from a third party. A consortium, lead by English businessman Ray Wilson, laid an offer out of $6,500,000 to take control of all the main assets (names, titles, library, etc.) and a select few contracts. AOL Time Warner, desperate to get rid of WCW now, set a deadline of March 1st for all other parties to make a counter offer. Bischoff admitted defeat, unable to match such a huge sum, and the WWF never returned a new offer. At the closing of business on March 1st 2001, World Championship Wrestling was bought by Wilson Enterprise. Ray Wilson announced that he would be working full time with WCW, but declared it closed until further notice. It was later claimed that an offer of $7,700,000 by the WWF was made for WCW, but Ted Turner convinced AOL Time Warner not to sell to "the enemy", and the board room decided to sell else where out of respect to Turner. A press release was issued listing several of the workers that would continue to work WCW going into the future, including Diamond Dallas Page, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Booker T, Goldberg and Eric Bischoff, himself. An announce team of Mike Tenay, joined by Ray Wilson, who had experience commentating on sports in the UK for Sky Sports, was also announced. Wilson, accompanied by Flair, Hogan and Bischoff, went from network to network to try and secure a new TV deal, until finally FOX offered them a deal. The deal wasn't great, but it was something, and it was especially appealing as FOX was letting the company run Nitro live against WWF Raw is War once more, starting in May. What you're getting for your money, breaking kayfabe... This diary will be set out as a monthly magazine type format, meaning rather than a report after every show, you will get one report after every in-game month, listing all the going's on, results, gossip, etc. I chose to do this as I've not got the concentration and drive to do a show by show diary, and I thought it was something different. I hope someone will at least enjoy this dynasty, any comments are welcome, especially constructive criticism. Thanks for reading. The WCW Magazine Archive » Issue 1 - 1st June 2001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyEddie Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 You've got a reader here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayW Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/WCW_Logo.png The WCW Magazine Issue 1 - 1st June 2001 Contents » 1. Foreword by Ray Wilson » 2. Going Forward by Eric Bischoff » 3. WCW News » 4. World Wrestling News » 5. Wrestler Spotlight: Diamond Dallas Page » 6. Results Show Case ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOREWORD By Ray Wilson Welcome to a new era in World Championship Wrestling history. I can not express my excitment at going forward with you, taking WCW to the next level, and finally being able to call ourselves the number one wrestling promotion in North America, once again. We have a great roster on hand here, with the likes of Bill Goldberg and Sting, all the way down to Mike Awesome and Lance Storm. It's a great pleasure for me to be in the situation I am in, I grew up back home in the United Kingdom watching WCW Nitro on TNT on a Friday night - a week delayed, but I loved it anyway. I'd watch it on my Cable & Wireless, I remember it was channel 13 - back then we only had a handful of channels, unlike the kids of today - and it would be Cartoon Network up until 7pm, before finally switching to TNT, and kicking straight into the previous Monday night's edition of Nitro. The likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting and Randy Savaged had me glued to my TV set, and I'd always be left wanting more. Thankfully, in 1998, WCW introduced Thunder, and I managed to get even more WCW for my buck. Thunder would air straight after Nitro. On another channel, somewhere else on my set top box, WWF's flagship Monday Night Raw was airing. But I didn't care. They could keep there Undertaker's and Mankind's. I had the Four Hosemen, nWo and Bill freakin' Goldberg. If, by my consortium and myself, keeping the name of World Championship Wrestling alive, means that some where, some other kid manages to feel that same excitment as I did a decade ago, then I have spent my money wisely. Thank you, http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/signature.png ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GOING FORWARD By Eric Bischoff http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/Eric_Bischoff.jpg Hello one and all, Easy E' here. Firstly, I'd just like to say it's great to say I'm still employed here by World Championship Wrestling. I can't say how much you'll see me on television, I am still the number one authority here in the company, but my services are, shall we say, needed elsewhere now. Okay, this is where I'm meant to tell you about how we're going to take the company forward, onto bigger and better things, over take the competition, blah, blah, blah. Well I ain't going to say all that stuff. I ain't going to say it because I can't make false promises like that. What if we don't succeed? What if, God forbid, the WWF still manages to kill us off? They came close just a few months back. Too close my liking. I'm a changed man. I know where we went wrong, I know where we went right, and this time around we can't make them mistakes again. I feel as if God has given us a second chance to make things right, make things work again. And that is where we must take things forward. We have to be more ruthless, no more just splashing the cash and hoping for the best. Cash may create controversy, but smart business creates stars. Here's to the future, "Easy E" Eric Bischoff. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WCW News It's been a busy month here at WCW HQ. While the new board managed to keep a hold of some original WCW contracts, they weren't able to keep them all. The task of filling the roster up looked a daunting one, but it was quickly done, with many WCW almuni re-joining the company, including Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart, Rey Mysterio and Konnan, and Lex Luger and Curt Hennig. As well as this, Ricky Steamboat has been welcomed into the WCW fold, taking up a role as a road agent. This means that himself and the legendary Arn Anderson are now in charge of putting the matches together that you watch every week - so if a match blows chunks, maybe it isn't the guys in the ring that have wronged you; perhaps it's Arn and Ricky! With all the new additions to the WCW roster, it's easy to over look NWA Wildside, which operates as a developmental promotion for the company. A lot of worker's were quickly snapped up by WCW, including the likes of AJ Styles, David Flair, Tank Toland and Lil' Nate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World Wrestling News In other news, the World Wrestling Federation managed to make several additions to their roster, including some former WCW and ECW almuni. The list includes Glen Gilbertti, Tommy Dreamer, Norman Smiley, Ernest Miller and Nelson Knight. They have also recalled Dave Taylor from development. Stevie Ray has signed a full time contract with Zero-One, while Marc Mero has signed on to tour with them. XPW have released Chastity and Veronica Caine. Former WCW announce Mark Madden has signed on with UPW. American rookie Matt Striker has moved to Japan, signing a deal with Pro Wrestling NOAH, while 2 Cold Scorper has parted ways with the company. Still in Japan, Michinoku Pro have signed George "The Animal" Steele and Juventud Guerrera. Harley Race has agreed to work part time with IWA Mid South, while Joey Styles, Larry Zybszko and Jimmy Hart have both agreed to work with IWA Puerto Rico. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wrestler Spotlight Diamond Dallas Page http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/DDP.jpg Diamond Dallas Page first broke into the wrestling business in 1988, as a manager in the American Wrestling Association, where he worked for nine months before signing with WCW in 1991. There, he continued as a manager until late 1991, when he became a wrestler. Page is a four time (and current) WCW World Heavyweight Champion, as well as previously holding the WCW Television Championship, the WCW United States Championship twice, and the WCW World Tag Team Championship four times, with two different partners (Kanyon and Kevin Nash, two reigns each). DDP started his current reign as Champion on the first edition of Monday Night Nitro on FOX, beating "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Since them he and Flair have entered a war over the championship, and that war looks to have no end for now. According to independent wrestling website TotalExtremeWrestling.com, where they rate every wrestler in existance with a comprehensive grading system, DDP has a C- in what they consider brawling. They rate him highly on his entertainment skills, with a B+ for charisma, too. They do make the point of letting us know that they think Page is pretty much useless in hardcore matches, applying submissions, and using his arieal ability, with ratings of E+, E+ and E- respectively. WCW Championship History 09/95 - 10/95 » WCW World Television 12/97 - 04/98 » WCW United States Heavyweight 10/98 - 11/98 » WCW United States Heavyweight (2) 04/99 - 04/99 » WCW World Heavyweight 04/99 - 05/99 » WCW World Heavyweight (2) 05/99 - 06/99 » WCW World Tag Team (w/Kanyon) 06/99 - 08/99 » WCW World Tag Team (w/Kanyon) (2) 04/00 - 04/00 » WCW World Heavyweight (3) 11/00 - 12/00 » WCW World Tag Team (w/Kevin Nash) (3) 12/00 - 01/01 » WCW World Tag Team (w/Kevin Nash) (4) 05/01 - ??/?? » WCW World Heavyweight (4) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Results Showcase http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/WCWNitro.jpg WCW Monday Night Nitro Monday, Week 1, May 2001 WCW Nitro Rating: 6.05 / WWF Raw is War Rating: 7.69 The very first Monday Night Nitro on FOX kicked off with Eric Bischoff coming to the ring and welcoming everyone back. While out there he also announced that the main event would be for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship, between Ric Flair and Diamond Dallas Page, the crowd erupting with cheers at this news. During the show Jeff Jarrett was shown approaching Ric Flair, but the camera wasn't close enough to pick up much audio, but the word "Horsemen" could clearly be made out. Kevin Nash d. Chuck Palumbo Sting d. Shawn Stasiak Scott Steiner d. Alex Wright Booker T d. Rick Steiner Bill Goldberg d. Chavo Guerrero Jr Diamond Dallas Page d. Ric Flair, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship WCW Monday Night Nitro Monday, Week 2, May 2001 WCW Nitro Rating: 5.51 / WWF Raw is War Rating: 9.56 A war of words between Ric Flair and DDP really kicked off that this show, with Flair letting DDP know that he is still after this Championship belt. We also saw Flair with Jarrett and Scott Steiner backstage, and going mental at the cameraman when they noticed his presence. Two more Championships were on the line tonight, also. Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart d. Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire, to win the WCW World Tag Team Championships Lance Storm d. Lex Luger, to win the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Booker T d. Chavo Guerrero Jr Ric Flair d. Alex Wright Bill Goldberg d. Rick Steiner Diamond Dallas Page d. Shane Douglas, to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship WCW Monday Night Nitro Monday, Week 3, May 2001 WCW Nitro Rating: 6.13 / WWF Raw is War Rating: 9.24 Ric Flair opened the show, coming out with Jeff Jarrett and The Steiner Brothers, introducing us to his new group, The New Horsemen. During the show Flair also approached Lance Storm, informing him that he was "scouting" him as a potential member to the group. After the main event Ric Flair ran down to the ring, and attacked Diamond Dallas Page, with Nitro going off air as Flair savagly attacked DDP with a chair. Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo d. Rey Mysterio Jr & Konnan Jeff Jarrett d. Marty Jannetty Kevin Nash d. Chad Collyer Scott Steiner d. Great Sasuke Sting d. Shane Douglas Booker T d. Fit Finlay Bill Goldberg d. Mike Awesome Diamond Dallas Page d. Buff Bagwell, to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship WCW Monday Night Nitro Monday, Week 4, May 2001 WCW Nitro Rating: 6.14 / WWF Raw is War Rating: 9.33 The war of words still raged on tonight between Flair and Page, with Flair declairing that he will walk out of Sunday night's Slamboree the new Champion. We also see Booker T and Goldberg share some words between their matches. Goldberg, evidently, would win his match in a matter of minutes, completely destroying Todd Sexton. Scott Steiner d. Rey Mysterio Jr Kevin Nash d. Fit Finlay Sting d. Rick Steiner Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart d. Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble, to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championships Lance Storm d. Blitzkrieg, to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Booker T d. Christopher Daniels Bill Goldberg d. Todd Sexton Ric Flair d. Curt Hennig Diamond Dallas Page d. Mike Awesome, to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/RayW1986/WCW%20Diary/WCWSlamboree.jpg WCW Slamboree Sunday, Week 4, May 2001 Pay-Per-View Buy Rate: N/A It's important to note that a PPV deal had not been reached yet, and so Slamboree was held as a free event on WCW.com. We also saw Flair take Lance Storm in as a member of the New Horsemen. Christopher Daniels d. Lex Luger Shane Douglas d. James Maritato Marty Jannetty d. Shane Helms Buff Bagwell d. Blitzkrieg Steve Corino d. Alex Wright, to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship Rey Mysterio & Konnan d. Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble Mike Awesome d. Great Sasuke Lance Storm d. Curt Hennig, to retain the WCW United States Championship Sting d. Shawn Stasiak Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart d. Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire, to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championships Booker T d. Rick Steiner Bill Goldberg d. Jeff Jarrett Kevin Nash d. Scott Steiner Diamond Dallas Page d. Ric Flair, in a Cage Match, to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaysin Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 DDP defending the title every show? No one can say he's not a fighting champ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juggaloninjalee Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I love this format for a diary as I don't like reading long matches. Plus since it is an old WCW diary I will be following. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Good start fella. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJStark Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 If i was Lance Storm I'd be pretty unimpressed with the stable I'd just joined, all four other members losing their matches an all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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